Calibre’s Foolproof F/X

Toronto’s Calibre Digital Pictures worked on the climactic elevator shaft scene for parent company Alliance Atlantis’ feature Foolproof. Calibre provided a digital 3D shaft and elevator car, textures, tracking and animation, rig removals and compositing.

Calibre is also doing on-set supervision and 50 F/X shots on the AAC/Amaze Film + Television feature Saint Ralph, starring Campbell Scott. The shop recently delivered F/X on the Jaffe/Braunstein Films and Voice Pictures CBS MOW Surviving Love, starring Ted Danson, and is currently working on the MOW Word of Honor for the same producers.

Michael Carter has joined Calibre as executive producer, animation.

-www.calibredigital.com

Toybox on all cylinders

Toronto’s alphacine and Toybox are having a busy fall. Series work includes Showtime’s Queer as Folk and Street Time, Fireworks’ Mutant X, Epitome Pictures’ Degrassi: The Next Generation, Lions Gate’s 1-800-Missing and Barna-Alper/North Bend’s Blue Murder.

MOWs on the slate include CBS’ The Elizabeth Smart Story, ABC Family’s Beautiful Girl, Shaftesbury Films/Original Pictures’ Murdoch Mysteries I and II and Tapestry Pictures’ Prom Queen. Features include New York Minute with the Olsen Twins, and F/X work on Disney’s Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and Ginger Snaps 2 and 3 for 49th Parallel Films and Combustion. The Toronto and Vancouver Toybox locations are doing on F/X on the thriller Alone in the Dark.

Meanwhile, alphacine and Toybox Vancouver are completing work on the features Blade 3, I Robot, Chronicles of Riddick, Scary Movie 3, White Noise, MuchMusic Movie and White Chicks, and are soon to work on The Underclassman.

-www.compt.com

Rodriguez romance continues for Hybride

Hybride, the digital F/X house out of Piedmont, QC, scored an impressive gig with the Spy Kids films for Robert Rodriguez. Apparently the director is happy with the relationship, as he hired Hybride for his latest, the more adult-flavored Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

The shop also worked on its home province’s box-office champ so far this year, La grande seduction (Seducing Dr. Lewis). It’s shaping up to be a busy fall, as Hybride finalizes the DVD version of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. It will also provide F/X for the Warner Bros. animated feature Racing Stripes, The Last Sign with Andie McDowell, the Canuck copro A Different Loyalty with Sharon Stone, and Keystone’s monkey flick Spymate.

-www.hybride.com

All a-Buzz with projects

Montreal’s Buzz Image Group is currently working on a variety of gigs.

The 10-hour high-definition dramatic series La Grande Ourse was finished at Buzz, with F/X added on the shop’s Fire and Inferno systems. The program is a Point de Mire production to air on Radio-Canada.

Buzz also reports that F/X shots are in production on the ambitious Jim Carrey vehicle Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, penned by Charlie Kaufman. The shop is also working on digital matte paintings on the ACPAV/Christal Films feature La Vengeance de Elvis Wong. Finally, Buzz is working with YTV and Corus on a new graphics package.

-www.buzzimage.com

Mr. X branches out

Mr. X is all about partnering with filmmakers early in the process to provide story-driven special F/X. The Toronto-based F/X shop has upped its production involvement to the point of getting a coproducer credit on the prequel Cube Zero, produced by Lions Gate and Mad Circus.

Mr. X reports seven projects in the works. It is currently working on CG F/X for the Strike Entertainment remake Dawn of the Dead, for which it had earlier provided pre-viz and F/X supervision. Its plate consists of digital crowds, environments and matte paintings.

It is also working on the Impact feature sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Spymate.

-www.mrxfx.com

Serial blows out one candle

Boutique shop Serial Digital Post, on the occasion of its first birthday, is looking back on a busy year of online HD picture finishing, including editorial, color correction and F/X.

The Toronto house’s HD online credits include the AAC/CBS mini Hitler: The Rise of Evil and the Good Earth Productions half-hour doc series Great Canadian Rivers, which airs on Discovery Channel Canada. Serial has also posted the one-hour doc Nature’s Secrets (Exploration Production/Tele Images Nature), which also airs on Discovery, Exploration’s White Hot Winter series and the Lenz Entertainment/CBC kids show Nanalan.

Serial is also on board for Associated Producers’ topical doc James: Brother of Jesus.

-www.serialdigitalpost.com

Fearless Roach-infested

Mike Munn is editing the feature Wilby Wonderful, directed by Daniel MacIvor and starring Paul Gross, at Toronto’s Fearless Films.

Meanwhile, Decode Entertainment’s live-action HD series Radio Free Roscoe used the shop’s offline facilities and online services. Fearless sent the bears home after 40 half-hours of offline and online for Nelvana’s animated series Berenstain Bears. Portfolio Entertainment’s RoboRoach is staying put, however, and will soon be up to 52 half-hours.

Kerri Locke cut a recent MuchMusic Egos & Icons special featuring the ubiquitous rock band Nickelback at the facility, which also provided online for the White Pine Pictures docs The Anatomy of Burlesque and The World Stopped Watching.

-www.fearlessfilms.com

Eyes have it at Optix

Optix Digital Post & FX was happy to see Rhinoceros Eyes, the feature coproduced by Madstone Films and Paulus Film Group, win the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival for Canuck-born director Aaron Woodley. Optix’s David Hedley handled the HD online, color correction, compositing and F/X on the surreal film.

The Toronto-based shop is also handling some of the F/X load on 22 one-hours of the sci-fi series Starhunter, produced by Citadel Studios and Talisman for CHUM in HD.

-www.optix.ca

Docs in the Barn

The focus this fall for Vancouver’s Big Red Barn Post has been on docs. The Barn is currently posting parent company Big Red Barn Entertainment’s Team Spirit – The Jordin Tootoo Story, to air on CTV. The shop is also working on Red Letter Film’s When Love is Blind as well as Suckerfish, a short film by Lisa Jackson, a finalist in the National Film Board/B.C. Film ‘Picture This’ doc competition.

-www.brbmg.com

Meteor collides with Dinosaur Planet

Montreal’s Meteor Studios, a shop dedicated solely to the production of F/X for TV and film, is currently putting the finishing touches on more than 144 minutes of dinosaur animation – including more than 25 new creatures – for The Discovery Channel special Dinosaur Planet. The special, a large undertaking for the U.S. net, is set to air in December.

-www.meteorstudios.com